Latest Articles
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyA Virus Hosted in Malaria-Infected Blood Protects against T Cell-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases by Impairing DC Function in a Type I IFN-Dependent Manner
Any infection modifies the host immune status, potentially ameliorating or aggravating the pathophysiology of a simultaneous inflammatory condition. In the course of investigating how malaria infection modulates the severity of contemporaneous inflammatory diseases, we identified a nonpathogenic mouse virus in stabilates of two widely used rodent parasite lines: Plasmodium...
- Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceAdaptive Evolution of Geobacter sulfurreducens in Coculture with Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Geobacter and Pseudomonas spp. cohabit many of the same environments, where Geobacter spp. often dominate. Both bacteria are capable of extracellular electron transfer (EET) and play important roles in biogeochemical cycling. Although they recently in 2017 were demonstrated to undergo direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) with one another, the genetic evolution of this syntrophic interaction has not...
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyMetabolism of Gluconeogenic Substrates by an Intracellular Fungal Pathogen Circumvents Nutritional Limitations within Macrophages
Histoplasma is a primary human fungal pathogen that survives and proliferates within host immune cells, particularly within the macrophage phagosome compartment. The phagosome compartment is a nutrient-limited environment, requiring Histoplasma yeasts to be able to assimilate available carbon sources within the phagosome to meet their nutritional needs. In this study, we showed that Histoplasma yeasts do not...
- Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionA Chimeric Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine Protects against Lethal Yellow Fever Virus Infection without Inducing Neutralizing Antibodies
Efficient and safe vaccines against yellow fever (e.g., YFV-17D) that provide long-lasting protection by rapidly inducing neutralizing antibody responses exist. However, the vaccine supply cannot cope with an increasing demand posed by urban outbreaks in recent years. Here we report that JE-CVax/Imojev, a YFV-17D-based chimeric Japanese encephalitis vaccine, also efficiently protects against YFV infection in mice. In case of shortage of...
- Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionSingle-Dose, Intranasal Immunization with Recombinant Parainfluenza Virus 5 Expressing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Spike Protein Protects Mice from Fatal MERS-CoV Infection
MERS-CoV causes lethal infection in humans, and there is no vaccine. Our work demonstrates that PIV5 is a promising vector for developing a MERS vaccine. Furthermore, success of PIV5-based MERS vaccine can be employed to develop a vaccine for emerging CoVs such as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
- Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyRhlR-Regulated Acyl-Homoserine Lactone Quorum Sensing in a Cystic Fibrosis Isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a prominent cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogen that uses quorum sensing (QS) to regulate virulence. In laboratory strains, the key QS regulator is LasR. Many isolates from patients with chronic CF infections appear to use an alternate QS circuitry in which another transcriptional regulator, RhlR, mediates QS. We show that a LasR-null CF clinical...
- Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyVisualizing Association of the Retroviral Gag Protein with Unspliced Viral RNA in the Nucleus
Retroviruses cause severe diseases in animals and humans, including cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndromes. To propagate infection, retroviruses assemble new virus particles that contain viral proteins and unspliced vRNA to use as gRNA. Despite the critical requirement for gRNA packaging, the molecular mechanisms governing the identification and selection of gRNA by the Gag protein remain poorly understood. In this report, we...
- Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyHistidine-Triad Hydrolases Provide Resistance to Peptide-Nucleotide Antibiotics
Uncovering the mechanisms of resistance is a required step for countering the looming antibiotic resistance crisis. In this communication, we show how universally conserved histidine-triad hydrolases provide resistance to microcin C, a potent inhibitor of bacterial protein synthesis.
- Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceProkaryotic and Viral Community Composition of Freshwater Springs in Florida, USA
Aquifer systems may hold up to 40% of the total microbial biomass on Earth. However, little is known about the composition of microbial communities within these critical freshwater ecosystems. Here, we took advantage of Florida’s first-magnitude springs (the highest spring classification based on water discharge), each discharging at least 246 million liters of water each day from the Floridan aquifer system (FAS), to investigate...
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyNonproteolytic K29-Linked Ubiquitination of the PB2 Replication Protein of Influenza A Viruses by Proviral Cullin 4-Based E3 Ligases
Successful infection by influenza A virus, a pathogen of major public health importance, involves fine regulation of the multiple functions of the viral proteins, which often relies on post-translational modifications (PTMs). The PB2 protein of influenza A viruses is essential for viral replication and a key determinant of host range. While PTMs of PB2 inducing its degradation have been identified, here we show that PB2 undergoes a...